Transit Museum
The husband and I trekked to the city's Transit Museum near Borough Hall in Brooklyn on Saturday. It was definitely worth the trip. It's housed in an abandoned subway station -- one that was actually supposed to link up to that 2nd Avenue line they've been talking about for fifty years or so. They have gads of subway cars and buses dating back decades and great old signs, turnstiles, tokens, slugs and other stuff. Great place for kids and grown-ups. My pictures are posted at Buzznet.

Among the cool little fact-ettes I picked up were these:

By 1930, 52 percent of the Irish working in New York were employed by the city (think Tammany Hall).

The "third rail" was created by a black man who became an inventor after his race prohibited him from getting the transit job he really wanted.

There is indeed at least one subway tunnel under Central Park. The museum has a picture of men building the "Central Park Tunnel" under the park in August 1903.
- posted by Amy @ 1/12/2004 09:35:00 AM